Report: Army Won't Prosecute 17 Soldiers
Military investigators recommended courts-martial for the soldiers in
the cases of three prisoner deaths for charges ranging from making
false statements to murder. Officers rejected those recommendations,
ruling that the soldiers lawfully used force or didn't understand the
rules for using force, or that there was not enough evidence to
prosecute.
Case #1
In one case, commanders decided not to file recommended criminal
charges against 11 soldiers involved in the death of a former Iraqi
Army lieutenant colonel in January 2004. An autopsy indicated the man
died from blunt force injuries and asphyxia. Investigators determined
there was enough evidence for negligent homicide charges against two
soldiers and for various lesser charges, ranging from making false
statements to assault, against nine others.
The accused soldiers' commander, however, decided that the soldiers
were justified in using force against the Iraqi because he was being
aggressive and misbehaving. The case is closed.
Case #2
In another case, Army Special Forces commanders decided not to bring
charges against a soldier accused of shooting and killing a detainee in
Afghanistan in 2002. The Special Forces commanders decided there wasn't
enough evidence to bring that soldier to trial, the New York Times
reported Saturday.
Case #3
The third case involved a soldier who killed an Iraqi detainee in
September 2003. That soldier's commander decided the soldier was not
well informed about the rules for using force against prisoners.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=615811
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Compare These Sentences to
Sgt. Graner of Abu Ghraib Fame
Other cases not yet determined, but those determined received 3 years
and 1 year and dishonorable discharges. Meanwhile Sgt. Grainer of Abu
Ghraib fame was sentenced to 10 years behind bars for humiliating
prisoners, and striking two other prisoners. His greatest offense, of
course, was appearing in pictures that the whole world saw.
"Graner was accused of stacking naked prisoners in a human pyramid and
later ordering them to masturbate while other soldiers took
photographs. He also allegedly punched one man in the head hard enough
to knock him out, and struck an injured prisoner with a collapsible
metal stick."
Anticipatory Self-Defense
In a related story, CIA Director Porter Goss says that the CIA is
authorized to kill terrorists “in appropriate cases against members of
al Qaeda planning attacks against the United States.”
...
The CIA declined to comment on the remarks, but according to one former
senior intelligence official, the decision to get around the ban,
rather than to rescind or waive it, was made soon after the September
11 attacks.
"They wanted to keep the ban in place," [a] former official said. The
self-defense exemption "was a legal fabrication to save face, to say,
'Yes, it still applies, but just not in these cases.'Â "
The former intelligence official said some Bush administration lawyers
used a theory of anticipatory self-defense to justify their legal
analysis that the ban did not apply to terrorists.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20050324-114414-9779r.htm
from Brian Shannon